Construction has been underway and is quickly coming to an end with promising results.
While walking the length of the Madison College main Truax building, there comes a gentle transition. Students with backpacks change to construction workers wearing hard hats and safety glasses. The open spaces become suffocated in a sort of maze of barriers and signs telling students and faculty where they can and can’t go safely.
Truax is under construction for good reasons. A facelift is coming as programs that have been moving to where the students are in the active locations of the main Truax Building.
Preparation is being made to bring the IT classrooms from the Health Services Building to the D and E section of the first floor of the main Truax building.
“They don’t really have a lot of synergies where they are, so they’re better suited at Truax on the first floor,” said Design Assistant Lynn Dahlgren. “We’re expanding to allow more students into the programs and offer them the latest technologies so that they’re prepared for the workforce.”
The new IT department will include classrooms, data centers and faculty office space. This will be partially completed in time for the fall 2022 semester and entirely completed for the spring of 2023.
Also coming to the first floor is the college’s Honors Program. Currently, it is on the third floor, separated from the bulk of student activity.
“This will offer students better access to those services,” said Dahlgren.
Another service returning soon will be the Fitness Center which is slated to re-open in March after spring break.
According to Dahlgren, the Fitness Center will be expanded with updated locker rooms and added locker rooms for fitness officials and visiting teams.
Students can expect a new look on the first floor. Dark brick will be replaced with glass walls to open the space and just feel bigger, better and brighter, said Dahlgren.
Dahlgren continued, “I think everyone is going to be impressed with that as well.”